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Saturday, December 31, 2011

So the bridal shower we all did for Nelly was so much fun Sanjeeta decided we should all do another for new year, with a new recipe and a look back at our favorite recipes from last year. This year has been amazing for our family with the arrival of our son, we are now blessed with a boy and a girl and couldn't be happier, parenthood is a fun ride:-)

Monday, December 26, 2011

I was browsing food blogs last week and came across a wonderful Shawarma recipe , It looked pretty easy and I adore Middle Eastern food. she has the most delightful Dubai based blog with first class photography and cute pictures of her little daughter. I marvel at food bloggers with small children who manage to get good pictures. The day I took this picture I had made pita from scratch as we don't live in an area where we can get fresh pita. The hubby was watching the kiddies while I cooked and by the time I had finished I had a couple of minutes to snap a picture!

Monday, December 19, 2011

When I was growing up one of my favorite desserts my Mum would make was treacle tart, a tart lined with golden syrup (pure cane syrup from the UK and can be found in a lot of US grocery stores), mixed with bread crumbs and baked - gooey sweet and so good.

I found these lovely golden raisins and decided to make mini tarts with golden syrup and raisins, they turned out great. I gave most of them away as I don't need to eat them as trying to lose weight after the little guy arrived. I am just having the best fun inventing baked goodies, endless possibilities.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

I was tweeting a while back with the lovely Mdivani (I know you must be thinking Rebecca is addicted to twitter :-)) he had mentioned making Borscht and I asked him for the recipe. He very kindly emailed me his Grandma's recipe and she is Russian. I made it according to his directions the only different is I didn't add any sour cream, not keen on it and made a smaller amount. It was easy to make and a great soup.

If you love fashion, travel and food he's a great person to follow, he's a designer by trade now a blogger and awesome interviewer. He is the real deal and one of the nicest folks on twitter - @ladieswholunch1 and his blog

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I am thrilled to introduce Boulder Locavore to you, she is amazing and I have really enjoyed tweeting with her, she is also a Mum and has been so uplifting as I would mention being tired with two little ones. I have always been a fan of her blog, her passion for local organic foods and knowing where it comes from. She tells wonderful family tales with her recipes and is a must follow blog.

I was completely flattered when cyber ‘Gal Pal’ Rebecca asked if I’d do a guest post for her. I don’t recall what she’d just read of mine that inspired her request but I seem to recall it was a madcap tale swirling around food.

I also don’t recall how we first connected though know it was on Twitter. I appreciate Rebecca for so many things. Her culinary focus and her culinary reach are two starters that caught my attention early on. When I first began to read her blog I was fascinated by the chef interviews and her worldly awareness and interest. She’s plugged in, this girl. Our bonding truly crystallized earlier this fall over my obsessions of anything Anglophile or anything I can infuse in a jar basically. I became smitten with things like Hedgerow Gin and Sloe Gin, voraciously researching fruits of the hedgerow and what liquor I could make with them. Rebecca would throw me a bone when she found one in the form of any links with such recipes; I suspect both out of kindness and to watch my puppy-like antics when receiving a link for something like Wild Plum Gin Sorbet (which I made immediately).

All kidding aside, I really respect Rebecca and all of her talents. Social Media maven, dietary aficionado and committed Mom of a wee tot and newborn. I remember those oh-so-painful days of no sleep and smiling faces ready to start the day when I had never experienced a sleep-filled night.

A quick note on me. I live in Boulder Colorado with a food focus of local, seasonal eating, hence my blog name of Boulder Locavore. I am also gluten free as well as have a serious case of wanderlust so draw from my travel experiences when preparing my food. I also choose all organic ingredients whenever possible (which is quite easy where I live) but am one who believes everyone needs to choose what is best for their needs and budget. Of late, I’ve been enjoying prowling through multi-generational family recipe boxes, finding and preparing vintage seasonal dishes. Food does bind us all and I love the idea I’m eating something my Great Grandmother had prepared a century ago.

When I would travel through the UK anytime around the holidays I’d always bring home a ChristmasPudding (and jarred Hard Sauce). Christmas Pudding is a bit like a souped up fruitcake equivalent for those in the U.S. It’s steeped in booze so literally can be kept for a year before eating. When I found a recipe for Persimmon Pudding with Hard Sauce in my Grandmother’s recipe box I knew I wanted to make it for this post. A bit of a nod to Rebecca’s UK heritage interwoven with my passion for all things vintage and seasonal.

I will admit both that I had no idea what to expect when making this and that I was thrilled with the outcome. Americans will associate the term ‘pudding’ with a creamy, gelatinous dessert but this is truly the form more of the UK experience. More like a dense cake, perfectly seasoned with holiday signature flavors without being ‘too much’. And let’s face it; anything with Hard Sauce can’t be beat.

PERSIMMON PUDDING with HARD SAUCE

The original recipe indicates to put the pudding in a mold to bake however I elected to use individual ramekins. If cooking in a mold, either solid or tubular, I would check the pudding at 30 minutes by sticking toothpick in and watching the browning on the exposed surface for doneness. If the toothpick is clean, it’s done. It does brown but should not over brown on the top. Slice and serve on a plate with hard sauce. Also the original recipe indicated to grease a mold. I did not grease the ramekins and had no issue; greasing the mold would probably be a good idea.

·1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used a mix of the two and it was delicious)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.Mix together with blender or by hand flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

3.Add to dry mixture the persimmon pulp, milk butter and mix until well combined.

4.Stir in the vanilla and nuts to the mixture and fully combine.

5.Fill ramekins* 2/3 full and bake on a cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and top has begun to brown.

*I used 4-4 ounce and 2-6 ounce ramekins.

HARD SAUCE

Ingredients:

·¼ pound (one stick) unsalted butter, melted

·2 cups confectioner’s/powdered sugar

·¼ teaspoon nutmeg

·1 egg white, beaten

·½ cup cream, whipped (I hand whisked the cream to ‘lift’ it but not to make it peak)

·1 ‘jigger’ (ounce) of rum

Blend all ingredients and serve with the Persimmon Pudding.

I thank you Rebecca for this opportunity and hope you can sit back and enjoy with a cup of tea. And to you, her dear readers, thank YOU for your time and I hope you’ll enjoy the recipe. Please pop by my blog to say ‘hi’. This cake would go perfectly with another of my Great Grandmother’s recipes I have on my blog right now ‘Designated Driver Egg Nog’ (my title, not hers)….providing you’ll be walking to your next stop!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Here's a wonderfully simple recipe got the inspiration from Nelly :-) Cooking with Books. Lovely for seasonal apples and would make a great snack food to nibble on at holiday parties :-) A much healthier chip a great source of vitamin C and fiber.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

So I was having a tough day today, hardly any sleep the night before and just exhausted hubby was away on a guys trip. Then I saw this tweeted, it made my day, I believe this is how God speaks to us to pick us up when we are down through the words of others

I got this wonderful recipe from Kay of Kayotic kitchen after I started tweeting that I wanted to learn some Dutch recipes. She tweeted me this saying its a staple comfort food for Dutch folks, I enjoyed the addition of apples and molasses in the recipe. I must confess it was a little different compared to a British stew in taste a little sweet but its so much fun trying foods from different countries.

Here's the link to the recipe and your sure to enjoy her blog - Kayotic Kitchen - Hachee

I served it over polenta sometimes I like a change from mashed potatoes and it worked well :-)

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

It happened one November midnight, in Twitterverse, we saw this tweet from our dear Nelly @nella22. Without missing a beat, we all knew Nelly had “said YES” to her beloved “M”,as she sweetly calls Brian Murray, her fiancé.

So here we are,Nelly dear, your friends in the food world, wishing you and Brian,all the best. And with our wishes, a simple recipe with an easy formula for a life of bliss, rich with EVERYTHING in it!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

This wonderful recipe was inspired by a conversation on twitter I asked if folks had more recipes using miso and someone tweeted this to me ;-) and in the process I discovered another awesome blog for Japanese recipes - Just Bento

Sunday, December 4, 2011

We made rose milk recently, its a popular drink in India and a lot of friends and family members have fond memories of drinking it growing up. I brought some natural rose essence at the store and this drink sprang to mind, you can also buy rose syrup at the Indian store, although it has artificial coloring in it.

We had fun with this and called it Princess milk, I boiled some tapioca pearls let them sit in a little beet root juice to make them pink and used blended raspberries to get a healthy natural color. The pearls make it like bubble tea :-)

Monday, November 28, 2011

This is a fun treat, once in a while why not have an indulgent hot chocolate :-), its a hot chocolate made with cadburys hot chocolate (my parents brought it from the UK) and chantilly cream. Which is a simple whipped cream from France with a dash of vanilla and sugar added. This was amazing.

Friday, November 25, 2011

It's soup season so here's another great one, and my first chowder with seafood. It's easy and if your like me and keep fish in the freezer great to make with limited ingredients on hand. I added blackened creole seasoning which gave it a great flavor and slight kick.

Ingredients

1 cup vegetable stock

2 large potatoes diced

2 medium carrots sliced

1/2 cup cream

one teaspoon blackened creole seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

one small bag of frozen sweet corn

1 1/2 cups 2 % milk

one salmon filet - cut into pieces

one sole fillet - cut into pieces

1/2 an onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic chopped and one piece of chopped bacon

knob of butter

Method:

saute the onions, chopped bacon and garlic for 5 minutes in a little butter

add the carrots, potatoes, creole seasoning, sweet corn and stock and bring to a boil for 5 minutes

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The lovely Janice of Farmers girl kitchen a fellow Brit tagged me in this fun idea of Food Bloggers Unplugged and I thought it would be fun to answer like a live interview!, the questions are below I am to tag 5 folks but I will tag you all and its up to you if you would like to post and tag others.

Its fun to learn more about the bloggers behind our favorite blogs :-)

Food Bloggers Unplugged is to help you to find out a bit more about the tagged Food blogger, in this case ME! So here goes:

What or who inspired you to start your blog?

Who is your foodie inspiration?

Your greasiest most batter splattered cook book is?

These are three of the oldest books that I bought myself.

The best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it and what was it?

Another Food Blogger's table you would like to eat at?

What one kitchen gadget would you like Santa to bring you? (money no object)

I'm coming to you for dinner, what is your signature dish?

What is your guilty food pleasure?

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

It was Diwali a couple of weeks ago and I made this payasam for hubby its his favorite, I used this site for the recipe, don't you just love blogs. I didn't make many changes, other than using pre- roasted vermicelli I got in my local Indian store and using butter in place of ghee both work well.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Here's another soup for you, posted before but since its soup season and this is one of my favorites I thought I would share the link again :-), I also made my first chowder recently and learnt from the facebook page that there are two kinds New England white clam chowder, milk based and Manhattan red broth with tomatoes added. I love the facebook page for the blog, linking travel and food articles and chatting there, learn so much from everyone feel free to join in the banter there too :-)

We all watched puss in boots last night fun movie :-)

Ever wondered about foraging, join me this morning at 12.30am EST as I talk to Michaela Ballman @nutrispeaking she recently did a course on it. With restaurants like Noma in Denmark regarded as the Worlds best restaurant being well known for foraging for menu items per Noma's website

We comb the countryside for berries and herbs that others would not bother with and work with foods that aren’t part of any system of formalised cultivation and consequently cannot be obtained through ordinary channels of distribution.